[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/09\/19\/6-ways-to-make-your-organization-customer-centric\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/09\/19\/6-ways-to-make-your-organization-customer-centric\/","headline":"6 ways to make your organization more customer-centric","name":"6 ways to make your organization more customer-centric","description":"What does it mean to be customer-centric, and how can you place your customers at the heart of your business?","datePublished":"2018-09-19","dateModified":"2022-09-08","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/john-mccoy\/#Person","name":"John McCoy","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/john-mccoy\/","identifier":286,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5216747144eb5645ab6e66d0b3d5f737f844271f22e806df8a9af954e1744662?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5216747144eb5645ab6e66d0b3d5f737f844271f22e806df8a9af954e1744662?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thumbnail-719070cb4e2fbe65c1306f1518798f7f.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thumbnail-719070cb4e2fbe65c1306f1518798f7f.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/09\/19\/6-ways-to-make-your-organization-customer-centric\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/purpose\/","name":"Purpose","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Purpose"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/purpose\/thought-leadership\/","name":"Thought Leadership","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thought_leader"]}],"wordCount":960,"keywords":["Customer Centricity","Customer Engagement","Customer Experience | CX"],"articleBody":"Every retailer knows they need to get closer to their customers \u2013 but what does being customer-centric mean, and how do you actually achieve it? What are the big challenges, and where do you start? Barnaby Moffat, commercial director and co-founder of UK e-commerce specialists Envoy Digital, shares valuable insights about how his agency is helping its retail clients place customers at the center of their businesses.Customer-centric change comes from the top downDigital transformation is about focusing on the customer at every touchpoint, and operating in a way that delivers ideal customer experience. This is a simple idea with potentially complex consequences.\u201cGoing digital often means big changes from the way things were done before and touches every part of the organisation,\u201d Moffat says. \u201cThere can be a lot of resistance, so the drivers for that need to come from the top down.\u201dHe cites the example of a current client that has hundreds of retail stores which have been around for decades. Salespeople were used to making a sale and commission from shoppers that walk through their doors.\u201cGetting that team to embrace digital and not see it as a threat is a big turnaround. It has taken the leadership of the executives to demonstrate that it\u2019s not about making the sale, it\u2019s about adding value at every customer touchpoint. The salesperson is now rewarded for the value that they add, no matter where the sale ends up: online, through social media, or in-store. The whole value chain of that customer experience is rewarded. This is a significant shift.\u201dEmbracing digital businessAccording to Moffat, the UK is fairly advanced in terms of digital commerce and customer interaction \u2013 but there\u2019s still a long way to go.\u201cWe\u2019ve been involved in recent polls that show that over 50% of retailers in the UK still put omnichannel as their biggest challenge this year.\u201d Only a few have really embraced the idea of turning themselves into a digital business.\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean abandoning your physical stores and pushing all your business towards online,\u201d he warns. \u201cIt\u2019s about understanding how you want to interact with customers and how they want to interact with you, and designing your processes around that. It can be digital, it can be physical, and very often it\u2019s a mixture. The difficult thing is making sure these are joined up so when a customer interacts with you, no matter what the touchpoint, the experience is consistent.\u201dGet to know your customersPutting the customer at the center of your world is a relatively easy concept, but requires a long-term commitment to change. Instead of focusing individually on products, technologies, or processes, turn all aspects of the business towards the customer.\u201cThis sounds obvious, but the first step is knowing who the customers are,\u201d says Moffat. \u201cYet at best, most organizations have a patchy understanding of who their customer is and, more crucially, what they want and how they want to interact with you.\u201dFor Moffat, it\u2019s all about humanizing the individual customer: \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to forget why you\u2019re doing something. It\u2019s about John, it\u2019s about Jane, it\u2019s about Andy, it\u2019s about Debbie \u2013 those are the people we\u2019re doing it for. If we\u2019re making a decision and it\u2019s not going to be in their best interests \u2013 if it\u2019s not something that adds value to their customer experience \u2013 then perhaps we need to think again.\u201dTechnology enables customer centricityThe customer-centricity model has evolved in the UK, and technology is now a key enabler rather than a constraint in delivering an ideal customer experience.\u201cIn the past, we\u2019ve seen resistance to change from a technology perspective, as the CTO was used to holding the purse strings for these types of purchases,\u201d Moffat explains. \u201cWhile the CTO might still think in terms of platforms, the picture is now broadened. Now it\u2019s moving more towards the more customer-facing parts of the business, and customer services, sales, marketing and commerce are all part of the conversation.\u201dSuccess is measurableIn the past, different parts of the business had different KPIs: IT focused on uptime and the speed and security of the system, merchants on topline margin rate, and marketing on generating traffic and conversion rates. But as customer-centricity takes root, these are converging on newer customer-focused metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer lifetime value.According to Moffat, this is a logical consequence of joining together the customer interaction: \u201cThe key to being customer-centric is whether that customer is happy, so these metrics are increasingly important as they embody the whole principle behind it.\u201dStay focused on the customerTo keep the entire organization focused on customer-centricity, NPS scores or customer lifetime values need to be part of every executive review meeting. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to forget that we are consumers as well,\u201d Moffat says. \u201cThe people making decisions around the boardroom table buy from Amazon and use online banking and other online services. It\u2019s a change in the mindset.\u201d\u201cWe\u2019ve seen success for those organizations that really embrace this principle, and plenty of examples of those that don\u2019t,\u201d he concludes. \u201cYou see the value of it in customer loyalty, especially for organizations that don\u2019t sell their own brands but are a reseller of brands where the customer is extremely fickle. It\u2019s very difficult to build a good reputation quickly but extremely easy to lose it quickly. An organization that focuses on customer satisfaction is doing the right things with regard to customer engagement, and more likely to see that lifetime value increased.\u201d  Ready for the next big disruption?Want to be?Future-proofing your businessstarts HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2018","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"09","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/\/09\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"19","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/\/09\/\/19\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"6 ways to make your organization more customer-centric","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/09\/19\/6-ways-to-make-your-organization-customer-centric\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]